1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a combined opener and temporary stopper for capped bottles, such as bottles for beer, juice, carbonated beverages, etc. Such bottles have caps, which are held onto the bottle top either by threads which mate with threads on the bottle, or by sealing serrations which crimp the cap around a rim at the bottle's mouth.
2. Description of Prior Art
Known in the art (U.S. Pat. No. 758,235 to C. Cady, Apr. 26, 1904) is a combined opener and stopper (temporary sealer or closure) for bottles with crimp-on caps. The Cady opener and sealer comprises a metal plate having converging side edges which are bent downward and inwardly, a sealing pad made of a resilient material, such as rubber, attached to the inner surface of said plate between the bent edges, and an opening on the wider end of the plate.
The Cady device was used to seal open bottles by sliding the converging edges across the bottle's rim until the sealing pad was pressed and held onto the open mouth of the bottle. The opening in the Cady device was used to remove crimped-on bottle caps as follows: The rear edge of the opening was hooked under the bottom edge of the cap while the front edge of the opening rested on the top of the cap. Then the device was rotated up to pry off the cap.
Such a device was successfully used for many years until a new form of bottle cap appeared on the market, i.e., the threaded bottle cap. The threaded cap in use nowadays comes in two different types, short and tall. The short type, usually is used on beer bottles, has an incomplete or one full turn of thread on the inner surface of the cap with relatively coarse serrations (knurling) on its outside for better grasp and prevention of slippage during unscrewing. The tall type has a greater height and several complete turns of thread and serrations on its upper outside surface. Although both types of threaded caps are designed for removal by simple manual grasping and unscrewing, in practice removal requires substantial force. It is not unusual to see waiters in restaurants and cafes using conventional openers for removing short-height threaded caps from the bottles in the old pry-off fashion. However when this is done, the glass threads sometimes fracture, causing glass debris to fall into the beverage.
Another drawback of threaded bottles is that many conventional openers and stoppers cannot be used for temporarily closing and stoppering bottles because the threads interfere with the stopper. Also threaded caps of the tall type do not have lips on their lower end and fit tightly to the surface of the bottle neck and thus can't be opened with conventional openers.
These disadvantages were eliminated in a bottle closure-opener described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,435 issued in 1986 to G. Borodulin, et al. The combined bottle opener and stopper described in this patent comprises a metal plate with opposite side edges bent downward and inwardly. A rubber pad is attached to the flat bottom face of the plate. Teeth are formed on the inner sides of the bent edges for engagement with serrations on the periphery of the cap to be removed. These teeth allow removal of threaded crown caps by unscrewing the caps in the position of engagement between their serrations and the teeth of the opener. The bent edges have different heights with the difference corresponding to the pitch of the thread on a threaded bottle neck. For temporary closing the bottle, i.e., with beer or carbonated water, the device is screwed onto the threaded bottle neck as a nut until the rubber pad is tightly pressed to the upper face of the bottle to hermetically close the latter. For closing bottles with nonthreaded bottle necks, the device is moved onto the bottle neck by guiding the convergent bent edges over the neck in a direction transverse to the bottle's axis until the device is fixed tightly on the bottle due to convergence of the bent edges with the rubber pad, thereby to seal the bottle's opening.
Although this bottle opener and closure has solved some problems of the prior art described above, it is still has some disadvantages. In particular, the pad is attached to a flat inner surface of the opener whereby this pad projects downward for the entire thickness of the rubber pad. This impairs conditions for the fixation of the rubber pad to the inner surface of the opener and requires that the bent side edges have longer height, which, in turn, require that more material to be used for the manufacture of the opener. The rubber pad cannot be reliably secured to the flat surface only by an adhesive and additional bent lugs punched from the body of the opener may be required. This makes the manufacture process more complicated and expensive. The projection of the rubber pad in the inward direction creates inconvenience in placing the opener onto the bottle neck during closing, since the side of projected pad comes into contact with the top edge of the bottle.
The opener of the U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,435 has edges stamped upward from the metal plate. This makes the opener inconvenient in handling, since, when the opener is grasped in a user's hand for using the elements of the inner side, the sharp projections on the outer side will be sensed by the palm of the hand.
Two bent edges are insufficient for reliable engagement with the bottle thread and when a significant force is applied for tightening the opener-closure on the bottle neck, the opener may either come off from the bottle neck or even damage the thread.